Tips

Heat Reclaim Systems

A recreational ice facility is highly dependent on a refrigeration system to provide the necessary cooling to produce and maintain an ice surface. The electrically driven refrigeration equipment is the highest ongoing non-labor cost of operation for your facility.

The entire refrigeration process is devoted to removing heat from the ice and disposing of it outdoors at the condenser. Since a great deal of heat is being conveyed by the refrigeration system anyway, it makes economic sense to harness this valuable source of free energy. With a properly integrated building design, the real dollar value of recovered heat can easily exceed the cost of electricity several times over.

Benefits include:

Drastically reduced facility operating expense

Increase in refrigeration system operating efficiencies

Reduction in dependence on fossil fuels

Some good uses of heat reclaim are:

Heating of public areas

Heating of bleachers

Under-floor heating

Ice resurfacing machine water heating

Dehumidifier reactivation

Walkway and driveway snow melting

Domestic hot-water heating

Swimming pool heating

Fresh air makeup pre-heat

Snow melt pit

It is possible to provide the entire facility's heating requirement with free waste heat. With the addition of an opportunistic thermal gathering system, you can provide all of the facility heat at a minimal operating cost. In many cases, this valuable resource has been the tipping point of turning unprofitable facilities into profitable facilities. There is generally a very quick payback on first costs, and some rebates apply. By leasing equipment, your costs can be much less than your savings, providing you with an immediate positive cash flow.